1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a drive device for the road wheels of a vehicle with a stationary housing. The interior of the housing is partially filled with a lubricating liquid, and a rotatably drivable driveshaft is inserted into the housing interior. The driveshaft carries a driving gear wheel at the end of the driveshaft projecting into the housing interior. A differential unit has a crown wheel with a differential housing. The crown wheel is rotatably bearing-mounted in the housing and is rotatably driven by the driving gear wheel. The crown wheel rotatably drives a plurality of differential gear wheels of the differential unit. Driven gear wheels are rotatably driven in turn by these differential gear wheels. The driven gear wheels are drivingly connected in each instance to driven shafts for driving the road wheels of the vehicle.
2. Background of the Invention
In a drive device of the type mentioned above, it is known for the differential unit to be immersed in the lubricating liquid in the housing interior. This leads to extensive oil splash loss particularly at high rotational speeds.